I don't know what is going on with my plants

[smokeytimes]

I see some N deficiency I think but the nutes are good I have been on the same nutes now for almost two weeks. I have tried to foliar feed them but it didn't seem to help. The fourth plant in the group shot is the one that lost a root from the net pot the other night it is starting to look better although it is still very yellow on the bottom.

I went ahead tonight and flushed the nutes and I found a 1/4" size crystal (is this a salt?) I will let this run for two light cycles? The root ball looks pretty clumped up.

Also the FF nutes leave a load of residue on the bottom on the res is this normal?



1. How tall are your plants now? they are about 3"s

2. How far from the lights are the tops of your plants? Is this a constant distance or have you changed it recently? I have the light (600watt MH) about 20"s I had them around 16"s till last night.

3. How old are they? They are right at threes weeks now from when they were dropped as seeds

4. What strain are they? Bag Seed

5. Did you start them from seed or clone? Seed

6. What type of containers are you using and what size are they in gallons? I am using a 10 gallon tub for DWC


WHAT TYPE OF GROW DO YOU HAVE?

11. Hydroponic? Yes DWC


WHAT TYPE OF HYDROPONIC SYSTEM DO YOU USE?

14. Bubbler/Deep Water Yes


WHAT TYPE OF MEDIA DO YOU USE?

16. Hydroton I use Rapid Rooters with Hydroton to fill a 3" netpot


WHAT TYPE OF LIGHTS DO YOU USE?

20. HPS MH conversion bulb

21. Wattage? Lumatek 600 watt

22. Ballast, is it digital or analog? Digital

23. Is it remote or in your grow area? I have the ballest remote from the grow room

24. What nutrients are you feeding your plants? and trying to follow the Hydro feeding schedule


HYDROPONIC FERTS?


25. What brand? What mix? What strength? I am using FF Big Grow and Big Bloom. I also am using CalMag plus
I have used the 1tsp per gal Big Grow and 2Tbl per Gal Big Bloom as per thier feeding schedule with 1Tbl CalMag per gal
I was at 1025ppms now with the flush I am at 165ppm

26. How often, and when was the last time? I added the Nutes about a week and a half ago

ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS OF THE GROW AREA


29. Do you use ventilation for your indoor grow? Yes

30. If so, what do you use? I have four (POS) inductor brand inline fans from Home Depot

31. Do you use a fan? yes I have a 16" Osilating and a 12" Osilating tower

32. What type of fan and where is it pointed? What speed? I have a small tower fan and a 16" osilating fan on High above the light to really push air around

33. Temperature of the grow area? I have managed to get the temps a little lower but still high at 86f on and 75f lights off

34. Humidity of the grow area? put the humidifier in the room now it's running around 45% RH

35. Is CO2 being introduced? What method? No

36. Do you use Odor Control, (carbon, ionizer, ozone gen)? Yes I have a home made Charcoal filter posted in the DIY section

37. Do you use LST? HST? No I have not

 

[Waspfire]

dont see the pictures bro
also whats the PH at didnt see it mentioned unless i didnt look well

 

[smokeytimes]

Hehe you know what pot heads do a lot? Forget :rofl:

PH is steady at 5.5

 

[Newbud]

I'm just fishin but i'm tryin to help.

Is there an air gap between the bottom of the net pot and water level?
Its just they almost look overwatered.

Secondly, and i'm no expert on this, Your ph sounds low.
Do you try and keep the 5.5 constant as allowing the ph to fluctuate helps the plants uptake nutes at different ph levels.
If your trying to keep a constant ph i would aim more for 5.8 as this seems to be considered the point were all nutes become available.
There is a chart on uptakes at varying ph's in the resource bit.

Just trying to help

 

[Newbud]

http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=1833&d=1141100090

 

[smokeytimes]

yeah I try to keep the water level about a 1" to 2" below the bottom of the netpots. As they get bigger I will try to aim for half of the roots to be submerged in the nutes. this is a DWC setup

From what I read 5.3 to 5.8 is the range to shoot for. I am new so I could be wrong maybe one of the pro's can giude me to the right path.

 

[smokeytimes]

Thanks NewBud :bong2:

Whats worse is I saved that to the comp the other day but had not looked at it. Ok so 5.5 should still be safe but at the low end. I really haven't had to add much PH down to the mix as when I add nutes it tends to lower my PH.

Can the root ball form salt crystals? I dropped it before I could snap a pic of the crystal I found on one of the roots I swear it looked like a chunk of rock salt. but it must have disolved when it hit the water as I never found it again.

 

[Newbud]

I got no idea on the crystal, just googled it in few different phrazes and got nothing.

My asking about the water level was i just thought you might not have kept the water level down.

 

[pcduck]

That is a high ppm for such young plants and I try to keep my ph at 5.8

 

[smokeytimes]

Thanks pcduck. What would be a better ppm for them? I thought I could keep increasing the ppm's as long as they were not showing nute burn.

Newbud yeah I used the tips THG posted so yeah the netpots were below the water line just till the roots were in the water then I let them drink up the water till they were below the netpots. I still want to know what the salt crystal was

 

[pcduck]

I think in a few days you might see nute burn or nute lock-out.
I have my ppms in the 400 too 500 range at 3 weeks.

Those are salt crystals from your nutes. Nutes are in the form of salts, poor aeration in reservoir

 

[smokeytimes]

ok thats where I will set te nutes once I get this flush out of the way. as for the airiation I have two 6" air stones and a Eco66 pumping the water up the center of the res (like the garden of ease) I need more stones in there?

 

[pcduck]

Maybe, I was just thinking towards that direction because of the salt crystal, should dissolve in water with enough aeration. I use 6" air stones in each of my 5 gallon bucket and I have no accumulation of any salts in the bottom.

 

[smokeytimes]

ok the salt block hehe was actually right near the bottom of the netpot Also I have been using the FF hydro feeding scedule it has the first two weeks of veg at 1120-1260 ppms. I did kinda take it easy for the first few days with the ppms around 500. it just makes me feel like I am not a good plant daddy when they start looking ugly like this.

Thanks for the help guys, this place is amazing with all the knowlege buzzing around. :bong:

I did get to check on them this morning and they seem to be showing signs of getting better.

 

[pcduck]

Most growers cut the prescribed feeding schedule by at lease half, when following the ones from the manufacturer.

 

[smokeytimes]

Well live and learn . My buddy is has his grow going about the same time I did well he started about three weeks before I did due to my room not being completed. His girls are doing well on the same schedule. I guess different strain can make a big difference

 

[pcduck]

The strain that you grow makes a big difference. Some strains will eat all the nutes you can feed them and others if you even think of raising the ppm they start to wilt.An example of this is White Widow, they are very nute sensitive. Just takes the experience from growing each strain to get maximum benefits from the grow.

 

[skallie]

5.5 - 6.2 is a good benchmark for hydro ph try for midrange 5.7-5.8

whats is the temp of your reservoir.

lastly i would say too overwatering looks the most likely cause yet if the pots are not sat directly in the nute solution id then point towards nute strength but what do i know anyway.

lol

skallie

 

[smokeytimes]

The res temps are high running about 85f lights on and 68f lights off

I don't know why I had 5.5 stuck in my head but I have adjusted it to 5.7 for now as I don't want to change this to fast (I think I have stressed them pretty bad already)

I knew I was going to have a few hiccups on this grow that is why I went with bagseed. I have some LR2's and Sweet tooth but I have to get the room dialed in and a little practice growing hydro first.
I'm just glad MP is here to post qeustions and get good answers. tomorrow will be the second light cycle then I can go back with the corrected nutes and I think I will lower the water line iin the res.
I also have a new Exhuast fan I will be installing this weekend (1000 cfm) that should help with the temps on both the room and the res.

 

[Pole_Position]

Hey Smokey,

I'm a noob here, so take this for what it's worth

It looks like overwatering/not enough oxygen to me. At 85* res temp it's going to be real hard for the roots to take in oxygen/nutes, I've found that I start running into problems above 75*. A couple of things that have helped me are: 1) when my res temp starts running high I drop some of those little frozen Blue Ice bags (I use 4 - 6 for ten gallons) in the res in the morning. You can get these at WalMart for $1 each in the camping section; and 2) you might want to try wrapping some insulation around the resevoir to help stabilize the temperature.

You also might want to get a bigger pump than the Eco66 (or add another one) and add a couple more airstones.

Best of luck!